Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — The U.N. Security Council moved yesterday toward approval of new sanctions on North
Korea for its nuclear test last month, drawing a furious reaction from Pyongyang.

The proposed sanctions, introduced by the United States with the support of China, would target
North Korea’s ties to foreign banks and what Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations,
described as the illicit activities of North Korean diplomats.

The isolated Stalinist state already is under three sets of U.N. sanctions for its past nuclear
and missile tests and other acts. But Rice said the new resolution, expected to be approved on
Thursday, would take the sanctions “to the next level, breaking new ground and imposing significant
new legal obligations.”

North Korea responded by threatening to disconnect the hot line to U.S. forces in South Korea,
tear up its armistice agreement with South Korea and strike the United States with “lighter and
smaller nukes.”U.S. officials and analysts largely discounted the threats as bluster, noting that
North Korea has made such statements previously.

The support of China, which supplies North Korea with most of its food and energy, was key.
Beijing accepted most of what the United States wanted, but it insisted that the sanctions be
focused on Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear activities and leave North Korea’s legal types of trade
untouched.

The resolution presses governments to be more vigilant regarding illegal activities by North
Korean diplomats and in searching ships suspected of carrying illegal cargo. It blacklists two
North Korean companies involved in the nuclear and missile trade, plus three suspected arms
traffickers.